Resurrecting Wardenclyffe

Nikola Tesla. The name is legendary among engineers and steampunk fans alike. Inventor of the alternating current and the incredible Tesla Coil, Tesla was a man born centuries before his time, who’s brilliant inventions were constantly inhibited by technological limitations and lack of funding. He died alone and in obscurity, and many of his ideas were lost—either never transferred to paper, or those very papers disappearing after his death.

So remarkable were Tesla’s abilities and inventions that he’s been the subject of many conspiracy theories, from alien contact to earth, to time travel, to being an alien himself. The mysteries of his life may never been unraveled, but there are a few things from his legacy that we still have.

One of those is his dream of wireless energy for the world—something he worked on tirelessly, but never succeeded in getting to work. The idea was to use the planet itself as a giant conductor and he said he foresaw a future in which there was no need for the powerlines that were already begin to spread all over the earth. He was as confident in his ability to create wireless power as he was in the invention of alternating current, and while we live today with the benefits of the latter, the former has yet to come to pass.

Not only do we not have limitless wireless electricity around the globe, we don’t even have the science to create wireless power over short distances. It is one of those things that most scientists will dismiss as improbable, laughable, or even impossible.
But maybe it isn’t. Two scientists in Russia are convinced that Tesla was right, and all we have to do is recreate his experiments using modern technological advancements in material and solar panels. They’ve started an Indiegogo campaign and for a mere $800K are offering to provide free electricity to the world.

Maybe they’re crazy. I’m sure plenty of scientists think so. But then, maybe they’re as crazy as Tesla who, despite his eccentricities, was right so often it becomes difficult to be incredulous of the things he was apparently wrong on.

So the question I want to leave you with today is this—what if they’re right? What if Tesla all those years ago, frustrated by lack of success and funding, was right all along? What happens if two crazy idealists accomplish what modern science believes to be ludicrous?